Cram Session: Capito provides report
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CHARLESTON - Members of the U.S. Senate have less than 24 hours to pass a number of bills before they head out for a five-week recess, including government funding bills, confirmations of nominations and election regulations.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., provided an update to reporters Thursday morning from Capitol Hill, remaining optimistic that her Senate colleagues can make quick work of their agenda items.
"While it looks like it’s too much and some of (the bills) may fall off, I think the core ones will get done or we’re going to stay here until we get them done," Capito said.
Capito said the priorities for the Senate Republican majority include passing a continuing resolution, the confirmation of President Donald Trump's nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general and a separate nominations package.
The latest continuing resolution would fund the federal government through Dec. 11, avoiding another government shutdown in October, one month prior to the November mid-term general election.
"The deadline for funding is Sept. 30, but we want to take the possibility of a shutdown off the table," Capito said. "It looks like we’ll be able to pass that through before we leave, and we must pass that through before we leave."
The Senate was set to vote on a package of nominations made by Trump for various federal positions, including judges, ambassadors, cabinet undersecretaries and deputy secretaries, and other federal officials. By Thursday evening, the Senate will have confirmed more than 590 civilian nominees, more than the number confirmed at this point during Trump's first term for office.
"We are also passing this evening a large nominations package of over 75 nominations which will put us further ahead than we’ve been ... in the history of the country on presidential nominations," Capito said.
The big nomination fight will be for acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as the official attorney general. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Blanche's nomination in a 12-10 vote Tuesday, but it was unclear Thursday morning whether Blanche had enough support among Senate Republicans to clear a 51-majority vote.
Other votes that could happen before the end of the week include passing a third budget reconciliation package, which includes funding for farm aid, rearmaments to deplete stocks dwindling from the Iran war and elements of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, election reform package.
A standalone SAVE America Act has failed three times in the Senate, not getting to the 60 votes needed for full consideration and not having the full support of the Republican caucus. Trump has demanded the Senate cancel its recess to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, in order to register to vote and put in place a national requirement for voters to show photo IDs in order to vote.
Also, the Senate Democratic minority has communicated to Republican leadership they would be willing to quickly pass the continuing resolution and Blanche nomination if votes on reconciliation and the SAVE America Act can be delayed until after recess.
"We’ll look at reconciliation and the SAVE Act, the parts of the SAVE Act that’s important to a lot of people, particularly the president," Capito said. "I’m very much in support of it. That one is going to be a steeper hill to climb, so I’m not sure we’re going to be able to get to that."